4 mar

Walked another 31 kilometres, from Figeac to Cajarc, making a total of 212 kilometres.
No serious hills, quite a lot of sun and someone to talk to. This day made a difference.
Han arrived last night, after a trip that brought him from Bergerac via Bordeaux and Toulouse to Figeac. For someone who’s not completely familiar with the map of France, this is not a very efficient way. Compare it to going to Dover from Oxford via Bristol and Southampton. And then they brag about tgv’s in France.
Han and I have agreed to disagree about many things relating to the financial crisis. In a simplistic way the difference between us that I think the crisis is caused by defunct behaviour from people in general, while Han thinks it is caused by defunct behaviour of particular individuals. Call them bankers.
One of the thoughts that I had this week is that banking is really an unattractive job. At its most interesting it directs money flows in a direction where they are used more efficiently. Biggie biggie wow wow, as Julie would say. Maybe because it is so intrinsically boring, people need to get paid so much in order to get dragged into this kind of business. The higher the pay, the more unattractive the job. It would also explain the low pay of socially very desirable jobs like nursing and teaching.
Han let me talk a little bit about the hypocricy I see in the public condemnation of bankers like Fred Goodwin, Rijkman Groenink, Sjoerd van Keulen and Bob Diamond. I told him there might be a very interesting book in writing the story of the way these people were sanctified in the years just before they got villified. I know Han doesn’t find this idea interesting at all, but he knows me well enough to let me chatter away for a bit.
The other great thing, next to conversation, is that Han knows a thing or two about birds. I love that. He’ll walk and say: a buzzard. Or: a Gaai (they are not called Flemish anymore, because they have also migrated to France). And then he has a little telescope that shows these birds in close-up, which is helpful for me to recognize them in the future.
I told him at one point I thought I saw a woodpecker, a green one. Han got excited because they are not common in Holland. Fact is I do not have a clue if it was really a woodpecker, but I’ve seen this green bird on and off in the past months and always assumed it was a woodpecker.
Will be on the lookout for them in the next days. Han will join me for another 60 kilometres. I’ll have 1240 kilometres to go in total.